Twelve D.C. police officers were charged yesterday with taking $85,000 to protect men they thought were shipping hundreds of kilograms of cocaine into Washington. The drug dealers actually were undercover FBI agents investigating police corruption.
Some of the arrested officers bragged to the undercover agents about their "qualifications," according to the indictment: Officer Nygel Brown said he had sold cocaine before joining the police department and had never been caught. Officer Roland Harris said he had sold drugs while in high school and stolen drugs from police custody while he was a police cadet. Officer Dwayne Washington said he had stolen drugs from suspects and sold them.
Officer Sean W. Wiggins, according to the indictment, said he was part of the Rayful Edmond drug organization, which operated in the Trinidad neighborhood in Northeast Washington before it was broken by arrests four years ago.
Most of the arrested officers are in their twenties and have been with the department less than four years. Police officials have long expressed concern about the rapid hiring of officers that occurred during that time period and the limited training and review they received.
Although police departments in many other large and even medium-size cities have had similar charges filed against police officers, officials said, this is the first case in Washington to allege that a large group of police officers was involved in organized drug activity.
Federal and city officials said they did not believe police corruption was widespread, but they pledged to carefully monitor the department.
Holder said his office, the FBI and the police department "will continue our efforts to root out all those who would betray the public trust -- wherever they work, whatever their position."
D.C. Mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly said, "People in the District should not be discouraged by this process but heartened by it. Any officer who thinks they can get away with this should turn in their badge right now."
Kelly said that she was confident that Police Chief Fred Thomas, who took office in January, could effectively fight corruption and that she did not plan any special measures, such as the appointment of a commission to investigate the department.
The arrested officers were assigned mostly to patrol duties and mainly in the 5th Police District, which covers much of the northeastern part of the city west of the Anacostia River.
The indictment said the officers agreed to protect cocaine shipments "by using their police badges and their guns . . . to prevent police stops, searches or seizures of narcotics." In exchange, they received payments ranging from $2,000 to $25,000, according to the indictment. No cocaine was actually distributed, Holder said.
On July 13, for example, Brown, Wiggins and two other officers accompanied an undercover agent to an unnamed airport in Maryland and picked up three suitcases purportedly containing cocaine, then delivered them to a house in Washington, the indictment said. Later that day, the indictment said, three of the officers accompanied an agent they believed to be a drug courier on a trip from the Washington house to an unidentified "point outside Washington, D.C."
Holder said the investigation began in July 1992, when one of the officers, Brown, allegedly told a District drug dealer that he had previously accepted payoffs from another drug dealer in exchange for information about police warrants.
The drug dealer became an FBI informer and introduced Brown to a person the drug dealer referred to as his "Miami man," Holder said. The Miami man was an FBI agent, the indictment said, and during February and March, Brown twice provided protection during what Brown thought were transfers of drug money.
In March, the indictment said, Brown introduced the FBI agent to Wiggins, the first of the 11 other officers who eventually would be charged.
In April, the indictment said, the two officers traveled to Miami to meet an undercover agent who told them he wanted to use Washington as a central distribution point to transfer up to 100 kilograms of cocaine a month.
From that point, the indictment said, the officers brought others into the conspiracy to protect what they thought were three cocaine shipments. The officers were arrested yesterday as they were preparing to receive the fourth shipment, officials said.
Eleven of the officers were lured to the Marriott hotel near Washington Circle on the pretext that they were to discuss how to protect a shipment of 100 kilograms of cocaine, said Anthony Daniels, chief of the FBI's Washington field office.
The mass arrests in two separate hotel rooms were risky, Daniels said. All of the officers were armed with police-issued 9mm semiautomatic handguns, he said, and they might have mistaken the arresting agents for drug bandits.
To minimize the danger of surprise, Daniels said, two officials from the 5th Police District entered the rooms to announce that the officers would be arrested.
Capt. Dennis Brown, dressed in his uniform, entered one room while Inspector Claude Beheler, commander of the 5th District since May 30, entered the other. Beheler wore a gray suit. Neither man wore a bulletproof vest, though federal agents had recommended they do so.
"I didn't think it was necessary," Beheler said.
Beheler said the officers looked shocked. The inspector instructed them to raise their hands, and they complied.
At that point, several FBI agents in dark, Ninja-style outfits burst into the room to make the arrests, Beheler said.
The 12th officer, Ronald R. Bailey, was arrested while he was working at the 5th Police District. His father, Ronald Bailey Sr., also is an officer in the 5th District.
A senior federal official familiar with the investigation said Thomas was informed "in a general way" when he took office that some police officers were under FBI investigation for possible drug violations. Thomas said at a news conference yesterday that he has "been involved in it for a long time," but the federal official said Thomas was informed of the details of the investigation last week.
Each of the defendants accepted money, the indictment said. Brown allegedly received the largest amount, $25,400, and Wiggins received $16,000. William E. Hackney received $12,000, the indictment said, and the remaining defendants each received smaller amounts.
The 12 officers were charged with conspiracy to distribute cocaine and to possess cocaine with the intent to distribute it. They also were charged with conspiracy to bribe. The conspiracy charge carries a maximum sentence of life without parole. They were being held pending an appearance today before a U.S. magistrate judge. Thomas said the officers have been placed on leave without pay.
Staff writers Keith A. Harriston and Wendy Melillo contributed to this report.
A look at the 12 D.C. police officers charged yesterday with taking money to protect men they thought were drug dealers:
Nygel Brown, 24, joined department in 1989; assigned to 5th District.
Sean Wiggins, 34, joined department in 1989; assigned to the Violence and Gang Task Force.
William Hackney, 25, joined department in 1990; assigned to the Emergency Response Team.
Kyle Davis, 31, joined department in 1989; assigned to the 7th District.
Dwayne Washington, 28, joined in 1987; assigned to 5th District.
Ronald R. Bailey, 24, joined department in 1989; assigned to 5th District.
John Harmon, 24, joined department in 1990; assigned to 5th District.
Roland Harris, 22, joined department in 1990; assigned to 7th District.
Darryl Lawson, 29, joined department in 1990; assigned to 5th District.
Laquita "Vicki" Childress, 24, joined department in 1990; assigned to 5th District.
Mark Reid, 26, joined department in 1990; assigned to 5th District.
Troy Taylor, 25, joined department in 1990; assigned to 5th District.
